Chapter 16. What price are you willing to pay?
They spent all night in the building in the very end of the street. The Unknowns did not bother to separate them and even did not pay attention to the fact that Mike was also with them. Even though they were tired, they listened to Mike, who was telling them his story and the stories of many others who were locked up in prison. Some did not learn to fly in a timely manner, and others did learn to fly but then did something wrong and were taken here anyway. It turned out that those who knew how to fly lost this capability when they got here. In fact, not only flying, but whatever other skills they acquired in the World of the Unknowns were gone.
At this point in Mike’s story John exclaimed, “But I didn’t do anything wrong! I did learn to fly and was going to take the test!”
“You never know what Unknowns would qualify as wrong,” Mike explained. “It always changes. Generally, it’s wrong to sympathize with those who don’t want to learn to fly or try to help them in any way. Another wrongdoing is being unhappy with anything this world has or any of its rules. The rules may change, but you have to be flexible and accept the new rules no matter how ridiculous they are and whether you truly like them or not. Other than that, the Unknowns can come up with any frivolous accusation if for any reason they don’t like you, and put you here”.
“This is horrible,” said Megan. “I didn’t like this place to begin with. Yes, flying may sound cool, but not at such a price.”
“How bad can it be?” John objected. “Why would one be unhappy if there is so much fun to do?”
“Come on John, don’t you see? Suppose you don’t like a rule, for example that you can’t take any rides on Fridays, and you express your disappointment, you get locked up in this place,” Mary tried to explain.
But John could not reconcile with the fact that he was put in prison with this crowd. He believed that there was some misunderstanding about him that would get resolved. He told Mary, “You are saying this only because you have not experienced flying and you don’t know how it feels.”
“John, she is right,” said Mike. “You have to take it seriously. This place is very dangerous. I’ve been here for quite a while and seen many different people. Some of them believe they are here by accident and that the Unknowns would let them out when they understand that a mistake was made, but, believe me, this never happens.”
“How did he manage to read my thoughts?” John wondered and turned to Mike. “So you’re saying we’re stuck here for life?” he asked in disbelief. “You watch, tomorrow morning when they come to get us, I’ll remind them that I’ve been already flying and planning to take the test, and they’ll let me out of here.”
“Don’t count on this,” replied Mike.
Only when the night was almost over, the kids went to sleep, and a couple hours later, the Unknowns came in and woke them up. It was a work day as usual, and the kids were ordered to go together with all the other prisoners to make parts for some device that was used to operate the rides.
While they were walking, John turned to a guard and told him, “By the way, I’m here by accident. I was flying and was supposed to be taking the flying test.”
“I don’t know anything about this,” the guard responded with a stone face.
“Well, I just told you, so now you do. Can you tell it to your boss or whoever you need to tell it to, so I can be released and take the flying test?”
“I am not supposed to be talking to prisoners,” replied the guard.
“This is useless,” said Mike. “You are not going to get anywhere with them.”
“All right, but I won’t leave it as is!” exclaimed John. “I just have to tell it to the right person.”
“You won’t have access to any other people here except the prisoners and the guards,” said Mike.
“You are too pessimistic,” objected John. “You watch.”
All day long they were making parts. John was trying to console himself with the fact that these parts were going to be used to build the rides that he would ride when this mess gets straightened out. John attempted to approach several other guards during the day, but they got very angry with him and sent him back to work. At the end of the day he was very tired. When everybody was locked up in the prison cells, he fell asleep and slept till the next morning when everything repeated just the same way as the previous day. Before falling asleep John’s last thought was that Mike was possibly right. There seemed to be no way to tell anybody of importance that he had nothing to do with this bunch of rebels and that he wanted to go back and have a normal life.
Three days later, though, John encountered an opportunity. They were taken to the park to assemble a ride. At the end of the day, when they were counted and put into pairs to go back to their buildings, John found a chance to hide himself in the bushes. When everybody turned around the corner, John got out and tried to fly, but when that did not work, he simply started running towards the building where he used to live before this all happened. With great difficulties did he manage to climb up the wall to his balcony, though it was possible only because the wall was broken in places, providing hand holders. When John got in, he found the opening for his room and jumped down. He painfully hit himself on landing, but he did not care. He was back, and he knew that the next morning when the Adventurous gets in, he would be able to explain to him all the nonsense that had happened and to arrange for the flying test. John believed that taking that test would be a solution to all his troubles. He slept very well that night, firmly knowing that everything was going to be just fine from now on.
In the morning he woke up late, and sure enough, as soon as he sat up in his bed, the ceiling opened, and the Adventurous came flying down.
“Welcome back,” he began. “Sorry to disappoint you, though, but I am supposed to take you back to work.”
“To work?! But why?” objected John. “I thought we were right on track with the flying test and everything. What happened?”
“For one,” replied the Adventurous, “you got yourself into a place that you were not supposed to be in. And secondly, you associated with the wrong kind of people.”
“That was an accident!” John exclaimed in desperation. His last chance to straighten things out was slipping away. He had to convince the Adventurous that there was no fault of his and make him take his side. He went on, “Bradley offered me to go have some fun going through the walls, and when I discovered that it indeed worked, I could not refuse…”
“But you undoubtedly knew what kind of person Bradley was,” objected the Adventurous. “You were well aware of his refusal to learn to fly and his attempts to get out of here.”
“His refusal to fly, yes,” admitted John. “But as to his attempts to get out, no, I didn’t know anything about those.”
“Suppose you’re not lying. But, apart from that, you got yourself into enough trouble to be punished. Moreover, I am not the one to determine your guilt. It’s as simple as this: if you’re able to fly, then you have a chance to fix everything and come back, but if you lose this skill, you’re at a point of no return. I see you somehow managed to get back here… But I am certain it was not by flying. So get ready to go back to work, and let’s be done with this.”
“I can learn to fly again! Just give me a chance! Some time! I promise I will!” exclaimed John.
“Sorry to say but you won’t,” said the Adventurous firmly. “Now let’s get going.”
“I am pretty sure you can roll this back. C’mon, what do you want?” asked John.
All of a sudden he had an idea that seemed brilliant to him. He jumped off the bed and pulled down the mattress. All the money he’d hidden there was still in place. He turned to the Adventurous.
“Want money? See, I have a lot. I can share. Just let me try again. I will diligently learn how to fly, and we can schedule for the test right now!”
“Well, I am not supposed to be doing this, you know…” began the Adventurous, but John saw
that he started hesitating. The Adventurous paced back and forth across the room couple times. John was watching him with hope. The Adventurous turned around and looked at John sternly. He said, “You have to be aware that I have stuff on you, and you have to be very careful… Not to get caught again, you know… And, if I take your money, you would have to get employed to earn more if you want to have fun around here… If you don’t mind…”
“Of course, of course!” John exclaimed in relief. “I will work for money, no problem! And have fun in the spare time… Everybody, in fact, does it this way.”
“All right, then,” said the Adventurous after a few seconds of silence, as if he still was thinking through the final agreement. “I take the money, you don’t tell anybody about this. I get you a job, and then you start working, and we arrange for the flying test.”
“Deal,” John said without hesitation.
“All right,” the Adventurous said, grabbing the money from John’s bed. “Wait here until I arrange things. You will know if our arrangement worked when you discover that you are able to fly again. I’ll shortly let you know where you are going to work.”
John noticed that the Adventurous’ pockets appeared to be bottomless. He kept stuffing his money into his pockets, and he was not running out of room. This money took as much as the entire schoolbag of John’s, but the Adventurous managed to jam it into his two pockets. When he finished, he flew up to the ceiling, opened the ceiling door and was gone. John was hoping that some money would be left by the Adventurous’ disability to carry all of it away, so he was really disappointed. But in the end, it was more important that he had a chance to fly again.
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